Margvelashvili Says He Wants to Set Precedent When President Ends Term Peacefully
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, October 25
Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili, whose term expires this month and who has refused to run for the second term, says that he wants to set a precedent when the Georgian president ends his term peacefully, as all his predecessors “tragically or negatively ended.”
Georgian first President Zviad Gamsakhuria was found dead in unclear circumstances; still many speculating that he was killed. The second President Eduard Shevardnadze was thrown down in 2003 and the third President Mikheil Saakashvili is wanted for several crimes by the current Georgian Dream leadership.
“My primary goal was and will be not to hate each other and not to have the desire to destroy each other. Second - that the state as a guarantee of this coexists to be strong and to serve this diversity. I will always try to calm down the emotions of cutting each other's throats.
“For the time being, I do not see myself in politics, but as always, I see myself as a political actor in the society. I would like to set a precedent for the country not to kill, isolate or exile the president, the precedent for a president to leave peacefully, like in the European-style society,” Margvelashvili told the Radio Liberty on Wednesday.
He also said that controversy between him and the Georgian Dream party, which named him as its presidential candidate in 2013, emerged immediately after the elections and he decided to live in the presidential palace.
“Initially, before the elections, I was against living in the Avlabari palace, because of my [negative] attitudes to Mikheil Saakashvili. However, after the elections, I changed my mind as the controversy emerged immediately.
“I needed a symbol that everyone is not run by a single person [referring to the founder of the Georgian Dream ruling party Bidzina Ivanishvili, who was against the president’s being in the palace built by Saakashvili],” Margvelashvili said.
Relations between Margvelashvili and Ivanishvili went wrong after the elections and the attitude also changed the ruling party’s attitude to the president to negative.
Ivanishvili stated that Margvelashvili “ totally changed his attitudes and mood” after being elected in the role.
Before nominating as the presidential candidate by Ivanishvili in 2013, Margvelashvili served as the minister of education under the Georgian Dream leadership.
